The present invention relates to a processing apparatus comprising a plurality of units for carrying out a variety of processes.
A processing apparatus such as multifunctional printer that has functions of a copier, printer, scanner, facsimile and the like is configured of numbers of units; if electricity to all these units is always turned on, then electric power is also consumed by the units that are in stand-by status, which results in an increased electric power consumption. For this reason, among the conventional processing apparatus, there have been ones in which the electric power consumption is reduced by causing each unit to undergo a transition to a sleep mode and thereby halting the feed of electricity to each unit from a main power supply unit when stand-by time thereof amounts to a predetermined time.
Also, among the conventional multifunctional apparatus, there are ones in which electric power is supplied only to a unit that is required for executing a selected mode (refer to Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2008-160413 bulletin).
With an operating section of the multifunctional apparatus as described in the Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2008-160413 bulletin, an operational mode that one wants to carry out has to be selected from among all the executable plurality of modes of operation (for example, printer mode, FAX mode, scan mode, USB mode, copy mode, etc.), so that complicated manipulation is required. In addition, because it has been often the case that each model of multifunctional apparatus has its own mode name that is different model by model but for a mode of operation carrying out the same content of processing, it has not been possible for a user to select easily a mode of operation that he or she wants to carry out.
The present invention is directed to providing a processing apparatus that allows a user to make an easy selection of a mode of operation that he or she wants to carry out without requiring complicated manipulation.